Nuclear Fission
by dollsom
Summary: Pretend Passion had a happy ending. Two years later Buffy's life feels haywire, with a new demon, her father's remarriage, and her relationship with Riley under stress. Meanwhile, Giles, Jenny and Ani are living the dream. But all is not well in paradise.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** **Nuclear Fission  
****Rating:** PG13  
**circa:** between Where the Wild Things Are and New Moon Rising  
**genre:** kinda gen, in that it's meant to fit into the season as an episode might. Comedy, angst, romance, horror, the whole shebang, as the show had. Besides Giles/Jenny, it includes all the canon ships: Buffy/Riley, Willow/Tara and Xander/Anya. A  
**status:** WIP  
**Author's Note:** So, the point of this fic was to imagine how things might have gone had Jenny not been killed. How things would have stayed interesting. I hoping that I'll be able to keep it structured more or less like an episode. And since it's supposed to fit into season 4 as an episode might, it's only as Giles/Jenny centric as a real episode of BtVS would be. Which is to say that the Buffy of the story will figure heavily, and that a lot of this will be about Buffy's relationship with Giles, and her relationship with his family. Not much happens in these first two chapters, just set up. Also, don't expect updates regularly.  
**Summary:** There's a new demon in town. Human-looking most of the time, it "mates" with women before sacrificing them to its underworld masters. Meanwhile, Buffy is thrown for a loop when she receives an invitation in the mail... to her father's wedding. At the same time, her relationship with Riley is straining as his commitment to the Initiative comes into conflict with his commitment to her. In the midst of all this, Giles, Jenny and Ani seem to be living the dream, and proving that happiness is possible on the Hellmouth. But all is not well in paradise...  
**Disclaimer:** Only in my dreams...

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Yeah, I woke up this morning, and my head was all filled with guck and I was puking all over the place," Jenny said into the telephone, looking remarkably well for one who was allegedly so sick. "I know I'll miss the staff meeting, I'm sorry. But I'm really gross right now, if I come in I'll infect the whole office... uh huh... I'll try to plan my illness in advance next time... okay, thanks. Bye."

Jenny hung up the phone with a sigh, drew her housecoat tightly around herself, and climbed the stairs back up to the loft, closing the baby gates behind her. Once upstairs, she peeked around the screen sectioning off Anastasia's corner of the room, and smiled wistfully at her daughter. She tiptoed over, and carefully extracted the girl's thumb from her mouth, pausing a moment to admire the way her dark baby ringlets framed her peacefully sleeping face. Jenny then padded across the room, lit grey with early morning light, and climbed back into her own bed. Giles murmured in his sleep. Jenny propped her head on her hand and watched him, her gaze growing distant, melancholy. She brushed his hair back from his forehead, and caressed his face. As she ran her finger over his lips, he blinked awake. She greeted him with a smile that drove the melancholy from her expression, lowered her mouth to his and brushed his lips softly.

"'Morning," she whispered to him.

Half-asleep though he was, Giles was cognizant enough to kiss her back.

"Good morning," he replied.

They kissed lazily, until Jenny turned to nuzzle his neck. Giles smiled sleepily and sighed, tangling his fingers in her hair, as she unbuttoned his pyjama top, ran her hand over his chest. The sigh became a gasp as her hand travelled lower.

"Jenny..."

He drew her face back to his and kissed her deeply, holding her close as he turned over on top. When he broke off the kiss, the digital clock on the bedside table caught his eye. In the midst of his distraction, Jenny pulled him into another hungry kiss.

"You'll be late for work," he mentioned, as soon as he got the chance.

"Nope," she countered, nibbling on his lower lip. "Called in sick."

Giles looked at her quizzically, as though to ask what the special occasion was.

"Had a whim," she explained lightly.

To Jenny's chagrin, he didn't look any less curious.

Before he could question her, Jenny pushed herself up on her elbows, and kissed him hard. Taken off guard as he was, it was easy to reverse their positions, so that he was on his back. Not breaking off the kiss, Jenny straddled his hips and ground against him, running her hands over his chest. A low moan escaped his throat and he brought his hands up to rest on the small of her back, and Jenny was pretty certain that his capacity for critical thought had just shut down. When she pulled away, Giles was breathing heavily, the corners of his mouth upturned slightly.

Jenny leaned down to whisper in his ear, "There're much better ways to spend the morning."

* * *

Buffy had gotten up, hurriedly tossed on some clothes and pulled her hair back in a clip to hide it's messiness, and was about to go brush her teeth when she realized that not only was she not late for her 9 o'clock class, but that it was canceled that week. She flopped back onto her bed just as Willow came in, carrying their mail. 

"Hey, Buff," Willow greeted her.

"Mmph," she answered, muffled by the pillow her face was resting on.

"Remembered that class is canceled?" Willow asked knowingly, sitting on her bed.

"Mmph," Buffy replied, before raising her head and sitting up to face her friend. "Only just. I'm all awake now," she complained.

"All that potential sleep time wasted," the redhead remarked with sympathy while flipping through the mail.

"Hey, now that we're both up, maybe we can visit Xander?" Buffy suggested.

"Sounds good," Willow answered absently. "Ooh, you got something!"

"Really?" the blonde asked, scrunching her face in puzzlement.

"Yeah. Hey, it's from Spain!" she held the letter out.

"I don't know anyone in Spain," Buffy said as she took her mail. It was indeed addressed to her, and had a Spanish return address. She slit the envelope open with her finger, to find a large white card inside, with embossed doves and wedding bells on the front and the words "You're Invited". "Maybe it's a mistake," she postulated. As she opened the invite, a long letter fell out of it and onto the bed. Buffy didn't pick it up, however. She was staring at the card, "to the wedding of Hank Summers."

* * *

Griff hummed merrily as he made his morning coffee. The daily paper awaited him on the kitchen table, along with some toast and jam and a tall glass of fresh orange juice; he was prepped and ready to blow away his manager with his presentation at work later that day; and his coffee maker was newly repaired and working splendidly. 

He took his mug back to the table and skimmed over the front page before flipping to the sports section.

Oh, and of course the first of his annual triple sacrifices had gone well, too. He hadn't even had to gag the girl, she had been so terrified into silence. A small puddle of blood had been left behind on the kitchen floor after her body was drawn into the Netherrealm, but a spot of Javex would take care of that, no problem. He could clean it up before leaving for work.

All in all, it was shaping up to be a wonderful day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Jenny perched on a kitchen stool in fron of Anastasia's highchair, spoonful of whole wheat and strawberry mush in hand, petulant baby before her.

"Come on Ani, open up for the airplane!"

Jenny made airplane noises as the spoon bobbed and weaved through the air towards Ani's mouth, stopping short when the girl frowned and turned away.

"It's strawberry! Mmm!" she waved the spoon enticingly in front of the infant's face. "You like strawberry, don't you?"

Ani scrunched up her face in reply.

Jenny dropped the spoon into the bowl of mush and crossed her arms irately. "What is this, a hunger strike?"

"What was that?" she turned to see Giles slouching down the stairs, jeans and t-shirt clad.

"Oh good, you're up." After waking him up early that morning, Jenny had let Giles fall asleep again as she took on the baby care for a change. She had made her way through a changing and a bath, but when it came to feeding, she hit a brick wall. "Ani won't eat, I don't know what to do."

"Is her food warm enough?" Giles asked as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Um... I don't know?" Jenny was pretty sure the jar didn't say anything about food prep, it was just open and serve.

"How long did you heat it for?" Giles opened the fridge and peered in.

"I didn't."

He poked around the leftovers and baby bottles for something edible. "Put it in the microwave for a minute, then let it cool off for a minute or two," he recommended.

Jenny slid off the stool and stepped across the tiny kitchen to the microwave. "You're gonna turn our daughter into a picky little... picky person." She turned to Giles as he emerged from the fridge with a jug of orange juice. "You know that don't you?"

Both Jenny and Ani stared as he hurriedly set the jug on the counter and dodged the highchair to turn off the microwave. "As long as she eats..." Giles said as he took out the plastic baby bowl, took a ceramic one from the cupboard and trasferred the mush from the meltable to the microwavable bowl. Safe in its new bowl, he put the mush back into the microwave and set it for a minute and fifteen seconds. He turned to Jenny, brow furrowed.

"Is that my sweater?"

"Ah..." she glanced down at the grey lambs' wool she was wearing over her denim cutoffs. "Yep."

"I was looking for it." She recognized the perturbed note in his voice.

Jenny took a pair of tumblers down from the cupboard. "Well, you found it," she said lightly.

"Can I have it back?" It wasn't exactly a request.

She edged away from him to the other side of the breakfast bar and poured the juice. "Why?" Jenny gave him her best innocent look as she offered him a glass over the counter.

"Oh no, I know better than that." Giles took the glass from her only to set it back on the counter. He persisted, "Once you get a hold of my clothes they're lost to me forever."

"But... it's so comfy." She wrapped her arms around herself to illustrate.

Giles made his way round to her side of the counter. "Come on now."

"And I'm not wearing anything underneath," she said in a hushed voice, as if that settled the matter.

"Well, in that case..." Indeed, Giles appeared to give up, folding his arms and leaning passively against the wall.

Self satisfied, Jenny took a sip of her juice. Then the fruit basket on the coffee table caught her eye and she started towards the living room.

Jenny had just passed Giles on her way when she felt his hands on her hips. She squeaked in surprise as he pulled her against him and started snaking his hands under the sweater, trying to push it over her head. Jenny laughed, crossing her arms over her front to hold the sweater down and tried to dash away, but Giles just wrapped an arm around her waist and started to tickle her side with his other hand, to force her to let go og the hem of the garment.

Though Jenny was soon near collapsing with giggles, she refused to relinquish her hold. "Cut it out!" she gasped, squirming against him.

"Never," he growled in her ear, laughter in his own voice.

He redoubled his distraction tactics, attacking her neck with kisses, as Jenny continued her futiles struggle, giggling uncontrollably.

"Ahem."

Giles and Jenny froze at the sound of the new voice and turned towards the door.

"Hi," Anya said, with blithe indifference.

Buffy's look was less one of the indifferent, and more one of the deeply disturbed.

In a heartbeat, Giles and Jenny had a good two feet between them. Giles stared at the floor while he flattened his hair compulsively; Jenny focused on smoothing the front of her sweater.

"Are we interrupting something?" Buffy asked.

"Er..." Giles mumbled. "Um..."

That was when the microwave went off.

"I was just about to feed Ani," Jenny said quickly and rushed to the kitchen.

With Jenny in the next room, Buffy seemed to feel it was safe to approach Giles to talk to him. Anya followed her lead.

"I do believe I've mentioned that knocking would be appreciated," Giles said, folding his arms and leaning against his desk.

"Duly noted," Buffy said briskly. "Sorry," she added with sincerity.

"We heard the shouting and thought you two were fighting," Anya explained. "Again."

"Oh, we were," Jenny said from the kitchen, stirring the mush around in the bowl. "I won." She winked at Giles.

He fixed her with a determined look. "You're in for a rematch."

Buffy pretended that she hadn't heard the exchange.

"I didn't mean fake foreplay fighting," Anya clarified. "I meant the house-shaking shouting matches that drove us all crazy for a couple of months. You know, 'You're never home, would it kill yoou to help out a little once in a while?'" Giles flinched as he recognized his oft-used admonition of Jenny. "And 'Who do you think pays the rent here? It's amazing how you managed to lose all three of this family's jobs, one of which wasn't even yours!'" Jenny appeared to be entirely absorbed in feeding Ani.

"Yes, Anya, that's quite enough," Giles interrupted sharply. He hadn't been wearing his glasses, but they were sitting on his desk. He picked them up and started polishing them on the hem of his shirt.

"Glad you're past that phase, by the way," Anya added genially.

"As we should all be moving right past it," Buffy said encouragingly.

Giles appeared ready to take her up on her suggestion, but Anya kept talking.

"Xander's glad too," she mentioned conversationally. "He said you two were starting to remind him of his parents. He was worried." She became serious. "Don't tell him I told you that."

"Indeed," Giles said quickly to preempt anything else Anya might want to add. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, Anya's got some demon-related news," Buffy told him. "Some Odd-Gift--"

"Oggrifly," Anya interrupted. "Oggrifly the Temptor is in town. Mates with a girl, then sacrifices her to his gods in the Netherrealm. Used to wreak havoc with my quotas back in my demon days. A woman's husband would find out she slept with this guy, they'd become all estranged, she'd make a wish, but then Oggrifly would sacrifice her before she had the chance to enjoy the results of my hard work. You guys should find him, and kill him dead!" Anya finished with enthusiasm.

"We aren't here to settle your old office rivalries, Anya," Giles informed her.

"But womens' lives are in danger!"

"She's got a point there," Buffy interjected.

"Right, I'll do some research--"

"Don't bother," Anya said, "I already got the goods on this this creep."

"So, you'll brief Buffy," he turned to the Slayer, "and you'll patrol with Riley, then?"

"Actually, I thought maybe you and me could go. Since we haven't patrolled in a while, and, I said I'd be in touch more, and what better way to stay in touch than wandering around cemetaries, y'know?"

"W-w-well, I-I would... ah..." he glanced at Jenny.

"Go. Have fun." She smiled.

Buffy looked back and forth between them. "Oh... unless... did you have plans?"

"N-not precisely... it's just, well... Jenny took the day off work, so..."

"I don't mind," Jenny said with practiced ease.

Still, Giles looked torn.

"No, it's okay." Buffy shrugged. "Forget I asked." She plastered a smile on her face.

"Are you sure?" Giles asked.

"Sure." Her smile became more genuine. "Family time's important for the new daddy."

Giles smiled back.

"Heh," Anya shook her head at Buffy. "He meant they plan to have sex," she said knowingly.

Everyone's smiles became strangely frozen.

"Anya?" Buffy turned to the ex-demon. "In the future, could you do me a favour and _not_ disillusion me?"

Anya looked puzzled for a moment before a light turned on somewhere. "Oh, right." She laughed. "Sorry." She turned to Giles. "She has hang-ups about you having sex," Anya said in a stage whisper. "Don't ask me how she thinks Anastasia got here."

Giles appeared to have had enough. "Actually. we were planning a, er, family night." The girls raised their eyebrows at him.

"Oh, yeah," Jenny said from the kitchen, catching on. "We were going to have dinner, then play with Ani, and read her a story before putting her to bed."

"Right," Giles nodded. "A-and then... w-we were going to, um, sit here and, uh, read... to ourselves. Quietly."

"With tea," Jenny added, before ducking away to hide the grin that was spreading inexorably across her face.

"Sounds like fun," Buffy pronounced with enthusiasm. She turned to Anya. "Come on." And with that they left, turning to wave goodbye to Giles at the door.

As soon as they left, Jenny started giggling. Giles glared at her, before he broke down in laughter too.


End file.
